Cross fingers to reduce pain
Friday March 27th, 2015
Crossing your fingers can alter the levels of pain you feel on a single finger, new research revealed last night.
The
study by scientists at University College London, England, found that
a simple spatial pattern determined the burning heat sensation felt in
the fingers.
Using a variant on the “thermal grill illusion” – a well-known pain experiment – researchers used a pattern of warm-cold-warm temperatures applied to the index, middle and ring finger respectively.
They found that this causes a paradoxical, sometimes painful, sensation of burning heat on the middle finger – even though this finger has a cold stimulus.
When the middle finger was crossed over the index finger, the paradoxical sensation of burning heat on the middle finger was reduced.
However, if the index finger was cooled and the middle and ring fingers were warmed, the burning heat sensation increased when the middle finger was crossed over the index finger.
Co-author Dr Elisa Ferrè, of the UCL Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience, said: “Our results showed that a simple spatial pattern determined the burning heat sensation.
“When the cold finger was positioned in between the two warm fingers, it felt burningly hot. When the cold finger was moved to an outside position, the burning sensation was reduced.
“The brain seemed to use the spatial arrangement of all three stimuli to produce the burning heat sensation on just one finger.”
Colleague Professor Patrick Haggard said interactions such as these might contribute to the “astonishing variability of pain”.
“Many people suffer from chronic pain, and the level of pain experienced can be higher than would be expected from actual tissue damage,” he said.
“Our research is basic laboratory science, but it raises the interesting possibility that pain levels could be manipulated by applying additional stimuli, and by moving one part of the body relative to others. Changing the spatial pattern of interacting inputs could have an effect on the brain pathways that underlie pain perception.”
The study is published in the latest edition of Current Biology.
Tags: Pain Relief | UK News
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